Training journalists in the Mekong Delta

Fri, 28 Dec 2012

On December 5-7, IUCN Viet Nam organized a media training course the water resources management issues in Mekong Delta for 15 journalists. It was held in Dong Thap Province and included a field trip to Sa Rai Town, Tan Hong District, Dong Thap Province. The course was supported by the IUCN-coordinated Mekong Water Dialogues (MWD) and U.N. Democracy Fund (UNDEF).

While the post-course evaluation showed that 85% of participants considered the training useful, some requested more time for detailed discussion. This conflicted with feedback from previous journalist training courses that IUCN has organized, which requested less discussions and more time in the field. This probably reflected the knowledge and openness of the specialists that led the discussion in Dong Thap. This allowed the journalists to ask in-depth questions about complex issues such as the costs and benefits of the third rice crop and the environmental impacts of high dikes.

What was striking was the number of articles that the journalists published after the training course. Some article links are listed below and more news are archived at IUCN office: